No, that is not my point.
My point is: in the past Microsoft has made viewers available for most of
thir software, seems to me that they are going in a direction that makes it
harder for people.
I would need to upgrade my computer most likely if I wished to use office
2003 as my primary tool.
So the total cost of getting these files would then be most likely about
thousand dollars and a lot of headaches.
For now my solution has to be to just ignore these people, but I sure wish
we were back in the "good old days" when one could get a viewer only fo
filetypes one needed to view, say once a month.
The "forcing" to upgrade is definitely not helping my view of Office as a
product.
When the compability withing office products is this low, I would expect
things like changing to OpenOffice be low pain for many, as the main problems
I have heard about from people have been compability issues.
I am just very annoyed at the fact that some companies have default formats
that can only be read by tools that are not available except at such a steep
premium.
No I am not talking about specific professional or such tools, but mundane
every day things. I mean they have not been able to provide a viewer in more
than a year. Seems that they are trying to either force me to give more money
to intel&co or to drive me away from their products.
Ofcourse if there was really something really worthwhile in office 2003 in
my job of writing simple things fast, things could be different. Or if I
needed to collaborate regulary with someone who uses such tools.
All I am asking for is a simpel viewer, since office 2000 is more than
enough for my needs, and this ned crops up maybe once a month.
But nope.. seems not..
and yes, I am bitter.